The present invention relates to a moving walk to be installed in public facilities such as airport, railroad station, etc., and in particular to a moving walk for transporting users in two opposite directions.
As one of the moving walks currently in practical use, there is a moving walk which comprises sprockets rotatably mounted on left and right sides of the moving walk at one and the other ends of the moving walk, an endless chain engaged on the sprockets at each of the left and right sides of the moving walk, and a number of pallets on which users can ride and which are engaged at their left and right sides with the endless chains so as to be rounded or circulated by rotation of the sprockets.
In this moving walk, users are transported from one end to the other of the moving walk by the pallets moving along an upper or carrier side of a circulating route whereas the pallets moving along a lower or return side of the circulating route do not contribute to transportation of the users. In the moving walk, users cannot be transported in two opposite directions at the same time.
Another type of moving walk is disclosed in JP-B-56-257.
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 5, the moving walk disclosed in this Japanese publication comprises a guide rail 102 having an accommodation groove 101 extending in an extending direction of the moving walk, guide plates 104 arranged on upper portions of the guide rail 102 at opposite sides of the groove 101, each of the guide plates 104 having at its upper surface a running groove 103 extending in the extending direction of the moving walk, pallets 105 on which users can ride, steel balls 107 rotatably supported via receptacles 106 on left and right bottom portions of the pallets 105 so that the balls 107 can roll along the running grooves 103, and a screw shaft 108 having thread 109 and arranged in the groove 101 to extend in the extending direction of the moving walk.
The screw shaft 108 may be made of bundled steel wires so as to have flexibility.
The screw shaft 108 has portions S and L with shorter and longer pitches in thread 109, respectively. The portions S with shorter pitch are arranged near boarding sites where users can get on or off the pallets, and the portions L with longer pitch are arranged between the boarding sites.
The screw shaft 108 is connected at its one end to a drive shaft of a motor 110 and is rotatably supported at its other end by a bearing 111.
Each of the pallets 105 is formed, at its bottom portions closer to front and rear ends, with grooves 112 extending in the moving direction of the pallet 105, respectively.
Each of the grooves 112 supports an upper portion of a support frame 14 for forward and backward movement of the frame 14 via a shaft 113 extending in the groove 112 in the moving direction of the pallet 105.
Each of the support frames 114 rotatably supports steel balls 115 at its front and rear bottom portions, respectively, so that the steel balls 115 contact the thread 109 of the screw shaft 108.
In this moving walk, actuation of the motor 110 causes the support frames 114 to be pushed in the feed direction of the thread 109 in association with rotation of the screw shaft 108, which moves the pallets 5.
Moving speed of the pallets 105 is slow at the portions S with shorter pitch in thread 109 which are near the boarding sites and increases at the portions L with longer pitch in thread 109 which are between the boarding sites.
In transition of each pallet 105 from the portion S with shorter pitch in the thread 109 to the portion L with longer pitch or vice versa, the frame supports 114 mounted on the pallet 115 are moved horizontally along the shafts 113 so as to adjust spacing between the support frames 114 according to any change of pitch in the thread 109.
Because of its flexibility, the screw shaft 108 may be curved to curve the moving route of the pallets 105.
It may be, therefore, contrived that a number of pallets 105 may be rounded or circulated by substantially annular arrangement of the screw shaft 108 as shown in FIG. 5.
However, in fact, a screw shaft 108 having good flexibility is difficult to produce and therefore is not suitable for practical use. It is not easy to substantially annularly arrange the screw shaft 108 so as to round or circulate the pallets 105.
Furthermore, in the moving walk disclosed in JP-B-56-257, the adjacent pallets 105 in the moving direction are not in contact with each other, and therefore fence or the like means must be provided for each of the pallets 105 so as to prevent users from falling off.
The present invention was made in view of the above and has its object to provide a moving walk which can transport users in two opposite directions at the same time and in safe manner.